Are men the only cheaters?

Let’s say one or both partners aren’t sexually satisfied within the relationship. What about “extracurricular sex”? Guys get a bad rap as being the major cheaters in relationships, but I know plenty of women who’ve been the ones to look elsewhere once things got a little bit slow. Are there any facts here?

Data is often suspect because of “responder bias.” Quite high levels of adultery have been reported in the past-as high as 70 percent of married women, for example, in Shere Hite’s infamous report. Even Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues found that half of all married men had an affair at some point in their marriage, and that 26 percent of married women had had extramarital sex by their forties.

But a more scientifically rigorous, and current, study finds lower (though still significant) levels of adultery. The best estimates are that about 3-4 percent of currently married people have a sexual partner besides their spouse in a given year and about 15-18 percent of ever-married people have had a sexual partner other than their spouse while married.

Read more of Dr. Fisch’s advice in his book:Size Matters; The Hard Facts About Male Sexuality That Every Woman Should Know…And All The Knowledge You Need To Improve Your Sex Life